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Obama slams tax office over targeting

President Barack Obama is under pressure over actions by the Internal Revenue Service. Photo: Larry Downing

US President Barack Obama has condemned the targeting of conservative groups by the country's tax agency and vowed to punish anyone who may have taken part in it.

The comments come as senators called for top Internal Revenue Service officials to resign and congressional committees prepared to investigate.

"I've got no patience with it," Mr Obama told reporters at the White House on Monday. "I will not tolerate it. And we'll make sure that we find out exactly what happened on this."

An official of the tax collections agency acknowledged on Friday that conservative groups seeking non-profit status were singled out for scrutiny during Mr Obama's first term in office.

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About 300 organisations were targeted, some because they had the words "tea party" or "patriot" in their applications.

Several senators on Monday called for the firing or resignation of IRS officials as the political fallout over the agency's targeting of conservative groups intensified on Capitol Hill.

Democrat Senator Joe Manchin called for Mr Obama to fire the officials involved.

"The actions of the IRS are unacceptable and un-American," he said.

"The President must immediately condemn this attack on our values, find those individuals in his administration who are responsible and fire them."

Congressional Republicans have long suspected conservative groups were targeted, and have been investigating the issue since late 2011.

House Republicans have promised an investigation and the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee said his committee would also investigate.

"The IRS should be prepared for a full investigation into this matter by the Senate Finance Committee," said Democrat senator Max Baucus of Montana.

"The IRS will now be the ones put under additional scrutiny."

The IRS acknowledged on Friday that it scrutinised the tax-exempt status of conservative groups during last year's election.

An inspector general's report, due this week, will show that Tea Party groups were targeted in the application process for tax-exempt status; there were delays in processing returns of conservative political applications; and there were unnecessary questionnaires of conservative groups, according to Republican aides who asked for anonymity to discuss the unreleased report.

Speaking to reporters, Mr Obama said he learned of the matter from news reports last week.

"I think it was on Friday," he said.

He did not address a timeline from the upcoming inspector general's report that indicates at least one top IRS official knew of the matter as early as June 29, 2011, long before the IRS commissioner adamantly denied such targeting efforts before Congress in March 2012.

Instead, Mr Obama said he would not comment on the findings of the investigation but he argued that US citizens should be able to trust that the IRS is applying federal law in a non-partisan way.

"If you've got the IRS operating in anything less than a neutral and non-partisan way, then that is outrageous," Mr Obama said.

"It is contrary to our traditions, and people have to be held accountable and it's got to be fixed."